Patriarch Daniel of all Romania: “The Church of Christ… ‘The Holy Spirit Living Within Mankind’”.

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Editor:

I’d like to thank a Romanian friend who helped me by looking this up in the original Romanian. I do have some talents, but facility in Romanian is NOT one of them.

BMD

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We can see the Holy Spirit in a man when he does a good deed gladly. Not out of fear, but because he is a son of God by grace… he does a good deed, he builds a church, founds a family, works for the spreading of belief… as a son of God, by grace, with the joy of a son, not a servant. The Jews who spoke unknown tongues represented the peoples who’d come to Christ throughout history. He commanded His Apostles saying, “Go forth, teaching all peoples, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to guard all that I’ve commanded you!” That meant that Christ Pantocrator didn’t only envision only the salvation of the Jewish people, but that this salvation extended from the Jewish people to all nations, ethnicities, to all peoples.

This celebration shows us the connection between Christ who has ascended to Heaven and the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sent to the world at the request of the Son. Christ ascends in glory, so that the Holy Spirit may descend in humility, with the purpose of extolling those faithful and humble in the Church of Christ. The Orthodox faithful celebrate, this Sunday, 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus, Pentecost, marking the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the assembly of apostles, in the form of tongues of fire, and they started preaching. Although the Holy Spirit was present since creation, He descended upon the world fully to consecrate it only after the defeat of death and the return of Christ to the Father. Only then was the Holy Spirit able to descend upon the human nature, rid of sin and redeemed, and it dwelt in those who’ve received Christ. On the day of Pentecost, through the descent of the Holy Spirit, a new organism appeared… a divine-human foundation, the Church.

In other words, the descent upon the Apostles of the Spirit, the gifts and charismata received by them, and the preaching and baptising of the first 3,000 people constitutes the foundation of the Christian Church, both as a community of believers and as an institution. The Church is not, thus, only a human group associated in the same faith, nor is it only an institution bordered by dogma and laws. It is a communion of mankind with God, and God bears within Him the Holy Spirit. Some Church Fathers named the Church of Christ “the Holy Spirit living within mankind”.

31 May 2015

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel Ciobotea

Archbishop of Bucharest and Patriarch of all Romania

Nine O’ Clock

http://www.nineoclock.ro/patriarch-daniel-the-holy-spirit-can-be-seen-in-man-when-he-does-good-deeds-gladly/

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Toronto Priest Exploited Position to Sexually Assault Women

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A disgraced Romanian Orthodox priest admitted to sexually assaulting 10 women, exploiting his position to victimise them in church, during confessions, and in other places. Ioan Pop, 56, used his holy position to fondle, kiss, and make unwanted sexual advances at women from April 1999 through September 2013. The assaults occurred whilst victims sought religious services such as confessions, weddings, and funerals. Pop also tried to confine, seduce, and spark an affair with a despondent woman in 1999. The court heard that he vowed to curse her and her family for generations if she exposed him. Pop pleaded guilty to seven sexual assault charges, but he also admitted the facts on three other allegations. The judge can then weigh those facts as an aggravating factor on sentencing, which could result in a more severe sentence. Crown attorney Jackie Garrity read out the disturbing facts to Justice Peter Hryn.

The Romanian women, whose identifies are under a publication ban, ranged in age from early 20s to mid-30s. Pop kissed one woman on the mouth whilst he was performing a memorial service for her grandmother in All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church in February 2009. Pop groped the breast and kissed the knee of another married woman during a confession in November or December 2011. Garrity said that he also told her what he’d do to her sexually “if he were her husband”, and then told her she was “his angel and that he wanted to spend days with her”.

The court heard that one victim emigrated to Canada with her husband and young child. Her husband became gravely ill. The devoted wife attended his hospital bed every day and in July ’99, she reached out to Pop to bless her dying spouse. Testimony stated that the woman and Pop were going to the hospital when they stopped off at a friend’s home “to pick up some religious robes”. Once inside, Pop propositioned the woman, who vehemently rejected him. He restrained her by his forceful hugs as she threatened to scream to escape. Garrity said, “Pop said, ‘No one would know as he was a priest and he could not tell anyone’”. The terrified, crying woman finally left with Pop. He threatened to curse her and her family “for generations to come” if she revealed the incident. Garrity said that the victim took “this threat very seriously” and never reported it until after the police first charged Pop in September 2013 after another woman complained he molested and licked her in church when she sought his help in a child custody matter. The ’99 victim and 12 others came forward after the 2013 victim’s complaint became public.

In another incident, Pop, now 56, visited a 24-year-old East York woman’s apartment home to bless it in July 2006. Garrity told Hryn, “Pop suddenly stopped the ritual, and began crying and talking to the victim about women who suffer breast cancer, describing the fact that many women do not survive this illness. Ultimately, he offered to bless the woman’s breasts. She was concerned that the priest had some kind of premonition that she herself may have breast cancer”. The victim agreed to the blessing. Garrity said that he “put his hand inside her top, making the sign of the cross of her bare nipples with holy water to purportedly bless her breasts”. He then “hugged her tightly for about 30 seconds … in what the victim perceived to be a sexual manner”.

Pop, who emigrated to Canada in 1999 with his wife and two children, started a religious community in East York and then built All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church at 545 Danforth Road in Scarborough, where he served from 2004 until 2013. A court order now bars him from practising as a priest. His prominent lawyer Joseph Neuberger said, “He was a very caring priest who contributed so much to the Romanian community, from fundraising to accommodating the poor and distressed families”. Neuberger said that Pop “went beyond the boundaries of permissible behaviour after his daughter’s tragic death a few years after he came to Canada”. Pop’s sentencing will be on 23 June.

6 May 2015

Sam Pazzano

Toronto (ON) Sun

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/05/06/priest-exploited-position-to-sexually-assault-women

Toronto Police Lay Seven More Sex Assault Charges Against Romanian Orthodox Priest

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Toronto police said that a Romanian Orthodox priest faces seven more sexual assault charges in addition to one laid earlier this month. Police arrested Ioan Pop, 54, of Toronto in early September and charged him with one count of sexual assault after a woman was allegedly assaulted at All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church in the city’s east end. At the time, police released a photograph and said that they believed there might be more victims. Detective Teresa Curtis of the sex crimes unit said that several more women came forward with allegations against Pop, who’s now charged with eight counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement. She said that the new charges relate to alleged incidents that happened between 2005 and 2011, and that the additional seven complainants were between 24 and 43-years-old at the time of the alleged offences. Curtis said that Pop is in custody. Police still believe that there may be more complainants and are asking anyone with any further information to come forward.

30 September 2013

CTV News

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/toronto-police-lay-7-more-sex-assault-charges-against-orthodox-priest-1.1476948

 

Romanian Orthodox Priest Arrested in Alleged Sexual Assault of Parishioner in Metro Toronto Church

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On Wednesday, cops arrested a Toronto priest for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in his Scarborough ON (part of the Greater Toronto Area) parish. Ioan Pop, the 54-year-old parish priest at All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church, faces charges of one count of sexual assault. According to the Toronto Police Service, on Tuesday 3 September, reports say that Rev Pop allegedly sexually assaulted a woman who entered the church, only to be surprised by a couple who “interrupted the assault”. The statement added, “Police believe that there may be more victims”. All Saints, located near Birchmount and Danforth, was consecrated in 2008. A 2008 write-up on the website of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas said that the parish itself came about “because of the desire of the Romanian faithful and the efforts of Fr Ioan Pop to create a solid Romanian and Orthodox community on Canadian soil”. Rev Pop has a 15 October hearing at the Eglinton Avenue East courthouse.

13 September 2013

Tristin Hopper

National Post

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/13/orthodox-priest-arrested-in-alleged-sexual-assault-of-scarborough-parishioner/